Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

I can tell from my expanding waistline that we have been involved in quite an entertaining week. On Monday, the vicar (Sarah) and her mum (Glennis) came over for a BBQ. It had been a gorgeous day and it was a lovely way to end it. Nicky had made a coleslaw, I did a potato salad and a green salad, and barbied a few steaks. The visitors brought some great wine, and we finished off with a lemon yoghurt cake and some chocolate cake. Mike Wall was with us too and we had a grand evening. Tuesday was much more humid and ended with rain, but the household was very cheerful as Claire and Ryan came over for pancakes. I made vegan ones with soy milk and no eggs. It took me a little while to get my eye in when cooking them because the soy milk gave the batter a different consistency, but they were very good. I put some on one side for Mike to make into a crepe suzette type dessert. Another good evening of company and food. Wednesday's weather was quite dull. I had a very long walk due to follo

Nicky has been on holiday again this week, but we haven't been away. The weather forecast for the week was not brilliant, but turned out to be wrong most of the time, and we have had some lovely weather; just a few rainy bits. This has enabled Nicky to do lots of pottering round the house and sewing, and I have done a few Mac jobs here and there. On Tuesday Nicky went over to Glendowie and had lunch with Ruth. At some point during the week, Nicky was with me at the bakers and we bought our first batch of hot cross buns for the year, and have been thoroughly enjoying them. On Friday we went to the airport to collect Mike Wall, a friend from the UK who is visiting NZ and staying with us for awhile. On the way to the airport we called in on Claire for a quick tour of the NZ Archives where she is doing her internship. It was very interesting to see the place and the material that she is working with. We then popped over to one of the Icebreaker stores so that I could spend my Chris

You may remember, dear reader, that last August Nicky and I had a weekend in Thames on the Coromandel peninsula. We liked it so much we decided we would like to go back for a holiday sometime. You may also remember that we had planned some holiday in February last year, but that Nicky used up all her annual leave taking time off work because of her suspected TIA's. Nicky is a member of the PSA Union, and the PSA own a number of holiday homes which are available at very reasonable rates for PSA members. They have a place in Whitianga, on the east coast of the Coromandel, so back in November last year I made a booking for us. That is where we have been this week, and we have had a wonderful time, so much so that I am now going to bore you with all the necessary details though just a few of the 670+ photos. Monday was Waitangi Day and therefore a public holiday. We had a quiet day at home doing laundry and getting ready for going away. Claire and Ryan came over for tea and brought us

We started the week with a day off for Auckland Anniversary Day. The weather was pretty good so Nicky and I drove into town, walked down Queen Street to the waterfront and watched one of the Busker Festival buskers. Wally, an Australian, was very good. We had a bit of a wander towards the Viaduct Basin before deciding to drive over to Devonport and have our picnic lunch on North Head. Lots of other people had the same idea (it is a good spot for watching the regatta) so parking was fun but we found somewhere OK. We lunched and lazed and watched a man paragliding (I think). After a stroll to the loo we popped round for a quick cup of tea with Letty, and then went and ate our cake with some ice cream which we bought on Narrow Neck Beach. As the afternoon started to turn to evening and the temperature started to drop we wandered home. On Wednesday evening we hosted Nicky's Home Group "new year" social. The weather was good enough to BBQ and the griddles were chocker-block